I have read, and then read again, all of your FS books to date.
My suggestion is that you listen to very few suggestions.
You are doing 'it' right.
Believe that, and keep doing 'it', as you have been.
That is why I buy. Period.
Overall, it is pretty awesome. I do not feel, however, that you have to keep lessening the Auroras abilities to make a dramatic effect. When new weapons are added the story shows a decisive victory, but then later those same weapons are not nearly as effective in the story. This does seem aggravating. Even if the battles are one sided in the alliances favor, the jung have so many ships it will still take a lot to be victorious in the war. I mean really, a plasma torpedo when first introduced tore up frigates immediately and then it didn't later. I find that very frustrating.
Not all Jung Frigates have shields, and as it was the only weapon on a stationary ship it was drawing all the power... it drew enough power to burn itself out. That hasn't happened since.
The reason I don't let the weapons always be as effective is for the sake of realism. Each Jung ship is different, built at different times, in different shipyards, and maintained by different crews. They will not all perform the same. Similarly, yes, but the same? Doubtful.
Maybe some Chengs are better than others? Maybe they found a way to make their shields withstand greater beatings?
Then there are the captains of those ships, and their crews. Do they all perform the same? Does the captain? Maybe some captains are not that good. Maybe they have spent most of their career patrolling areas where they don't see any action?
There are so many factors that allow an attack to be successful. Sure, overwhelming force and/or superior weapons systems give you the advantage, but such advantages can often be mitigated with clever tactics.
It isn't for dramatic effect, its simply for realism. You can't keep picking fights with tough guys and not get smacked in the face once in awhile.
Ryk, nearly time for a kid to ask why the big ships don't do the one light year jump thing that the falcons do. I am assuming energy consumption.
With a big enough power source they can do the 1LY jump thing. The Aurora had the 2 mini ZPEDs power 5 straight Jumps in Ep 7 Expanse. it was just not as fine tuned as the current drive set up. They came out of they're jumps short and at various different distances from they're targets.
Its on the Takaran to do list. They have the ZPED jump shuttle and are working on the problem. Also the Takaran Cap ship has both a ZPED and a Jump drive, so I imagine they do have the multi jump facility.
The Karuzara is too big to power its jumps from the ZPED's on board so they use the same version as the Aurora but powered by ZPEDS.
A pet peeve of mine is that the Aurora had they're power cables for the Jump drive upgraded by the Takarans in EP.7, then they did an upgrage with mini Zpeds themselves to increase the charging speed and reduce the charge cycle but somehow, the charge time remained the same ten hours. (taking into account that the charge banks were upgraded by the Takarans, I still think that the Aurora should have faster turn around time then the Celestia)
I think that it was a charge time for the Aurora is 7 hours for a 14 LY jump, but I think Ryk fell back in the habit of 10 hours charge time. I will be re reading the series again at some point and I will mark out where I think it say's that. (Ep 7 though I'm sure)
